Top player quotes from the locker room after NC State’s win over UNC

Torin Dorn

“(We’ve got) a lot of tough guys. Mentally tough guys. This is just a testament to the work we put in this offseason since coach has been here. You know getting in the gym, conditioning, you know, all that. We’re just mentally tough.”

“We have a mentality that we are never out of a game and we’re fighting to the end every time. It’s just a mentality thing.”

Al Freeman

“When we were down in the last 5 minutes, we talked in the huddle how we practiced this situation, we’ve been through this. So when we were out there it really wasn’t nothing for us. We weren’t really thinking, we were just banding together and having fun out there.”

“It feels good. We weren’t surprised. We expected to be in this game like this. We expected to to pull this one out. We knew they were a good team and we’d get their best punches. We just had to weather the storm, keep playing our game, and not worry about anything.”

“If you come watch us practice, it’s like we’re practicing for track. We can definitely tell the last 8 minutes of every game, when other teams are starting to wear down, we’re starting to kick it into our next gear.”

Markell Johnson

“Last year was embarrassing. This year we just turned it up a notch. Keatts got us together and told us to believe, made us believe. That’s what we did and we came out on top.”

Omer Yurtseven

“It was such a tough battle but I’m just so proud of my teammates and our coaches to just hang in there and push it through.”

“Coaches slogan has been “a new era” and it exactly represents what it says.”